T-Mobile Fires Back At BlackBerry CEO John Chen

U.S. wireless carrier T-mobile shot back at BlackBerry CEO John Chen for a blog post that accused it of running an "anti-BlackBerry campaign" after it offered iPhone upgrades to BlackBerry customers.

Chen wrote on Tuesday that he was "outraged" by the "clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion" by the fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S.

In response, Mike Sievert, chief marketing officer for T-Mobile, alleged that the premise of Chen's article "was that it's best for customers if we restrict the free flow of information and limit consumer choice.

"At T-Mobile we totally reject that premise," Sievert wrote in his own blog post Wednesday. "We simply have a different point of view on the matter of choice than the one expressed yesterday by Mr. Chen."

However, he acknowledged that T-Mobile has received a lot of feedback about the offer from BlackBerry customers, many of whom took to social media to express their dismay.

"The passion we’ve seen from the BlackBerry loyal over the past couple days has been pretty amazing," he wrote. "I want you to know we’ve heard you."

Last week, T-Mobile emailed some of its BlackBerry customers, telling them it had a "great offer" that would let them "get the tools to do more" – an iPhone 5S, Apple's latest model, for no money down. Customers instead would pay $25 a month for 24 months to purchase the phone (for a total of $600.)

Sievert announced in his blog post that T-Mobile was now extending a new offer to BlackBerry customers from any carrier who trade in their old phone – a $200 credit toward a new device from any brand, including BlackBerry. Existing T-mobile customers can get an extra $50 credit.